The existence of Purgatory is so certain that no Catholic has ever entertained a doubt of it. It was taught from the earliest days of the Church and was accepted with undoubting faith wherever the Gospel was preached. The doctrine is revealed in Holy Scripture, and has been handed down by Tradition, taught by the infallible Church and believed by the millions and millions of faithful of all times. Only those souls that are completely free of sin can enter heaven. It stands to reason, then, that the soul with unforgiven sins or the souls of those who have not yet atoned for their sins during their lifetime, yet tried to live as God would have us live, cannot enter Heaven and do not deserve Hell. Purgatory, then, is a place of temporal punishment for those who die in God's grace, but are not entirely free from venial sins or have not entirely paid the satisfaction due to their sins. The existence of purgatory is universally taught by all the Fathers of Church. The words of OurLord , "Thou shalt not come out from it until thou hast paid the last penny" are very clear (Matt. 5 :25) Later, when speaking of the sins againt the Holy Spirit, Jesus says such a sin "will not be forgiven either in this world or in the next," implying that there are some sins that cannot be atoned for in this world (Matt. 12:32). Saint Paul shows his belief in purgatory when, in his second letter to Timothy he prays for the deceased Onesiphorus. "May the Lord grant him to mercy from the Lord on that day. (2 Tim. 1 :18). Even in the Old Testament there was a belief in the existance of purgatory, for there we find Judas Machabeus sending 12,000 drachmas to Jerusalem to have sacrifiices offered for the sins of the dead. That chapter ends with the advice: "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins" (2 Mach. 12 :46). In purgatory, souls suffer for a while in satisfaction for their sins before they can enter heaven. The principal suffering of these souls consists in the pain of experiencing, on the one hand, an intense longing for God and, on the other, a realisation that they are hindered from possessing Him by reason of their past sins. Unlike the souls in hell, they are certain of one day seeing God. They can be helped, moreover, by the prayers of the faithful on earth, and especially by the offering of Mass. In the "Decree on Purgatory," we read, "The Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit and in accordance with Sacred Scripture and the ancient Tradition of the Fathers, has taught in the holy Councils and most recently in this ecumenical Council that there is a purgatory, and that the souls detained there are helped by the acts of intercession ... of the faithful and especially by the acceptable Sacrifice of the altar" (Council of Trent,1563). Padre Pio had a very special relationship with the Holy Souls..indeed such was the relationship that they were his frequent visitors..and led him to say: "I see so many souls from Purgatory that they don't frighten me any more. More souls of the dead than the living climb this mountain to attend my Masses and seek my prayers." When Padre Pio was asked how long a particular soul would stay in Purgatory he replied "At least one hundred years. We must pray for the Souls in Purgatory. It is unbelievable, what they can do for our spiritual good, out of gratitude they have towards those on earth who remember to pray for them." The length of time souls are detained in Purgatory depends on: a) the number of their faults; b) on the malice and deliberation with which these have been committed; c) on the penance done, or not done, the satisfaction made, or not made for sins during life; d) much, too, depend on the suffrages offered for them after death by friends and relatives still alive. What can be safely said is that the time souls spend in Purgatory, as a rule, is very much longer than people commonly imagine.

ROME (Reuters) - If you end up in purgatory after you die, never fear. Just remember to send a message to those surviving you, care of a riverside church in Rome. The Church of the Sacred Heart houses one of the world's most unusual and smallest museums -- a collection of signs sent from beyond the grave by souls stranded in purgatory.

Scorched fingerprints on prayer books, handprints burnt on to wooden tables, and singed pillowcases and shirt sleeves seem to be the purgatory equivalent of paper and pen. "Most of our visitors are motivated by curiosity. But faith is the key to understanding the relics," Roberto Zambolin, the church's priest-cum-tour-guide, told Reuters on Friday.

Catholics believe spirits, stuck between heaven and hell until they have atoned for their sins, can hasten their entry to paradise if family and friends on earth pray for them. And some purgatory residents obviously felt their loved ones needed a gentle reminder. Branding an imprint of his left hand on to a light-brown wooden table was one 18th-century friar's way of reminding colleagues to say more masses and speed his soul to heaven, Zambolin says. On a single day in 1731, the deceased Friar Panzini not only marked the table, but burnt a handprint on to paper and twice clutched at the sleeves of a nun's tunic, leaving scorch marks.

Panzini's spiritual smoke signals are a taster of what's on display in a bare room, dubbed the Little Purgatory Museum, off to the side of the church. While most tourists to Rome flock to the Coliseum or the Vatican, some stray off the beaten track to the quiet and unassuming museum to ponder the mysterious relics, gathered from all over Western Europe. "I'd say we get about 4,000 visitors a year -- young, old, Italians, foreigners, believers, non-believers," Zambolin said.

Fr. Panzini’s Handprint and Cross

__SPOOKY BUT TRUE?

Peering at four fiery fingerprints emblazoned on a prayer book, Austrian students Michael Weisskof and Karl-Heinz Larcher debated the validity of the relics."I believed in purgatory before, but seeing these relics reinforces my faith," 25-year-old Larcher said. But his 19-year-old friend was more hesitant.

"I'm not sure what I think. They are certainly spooky but even if it's not true, it's a good story," Weisskof said. The museum, about 100 years old, was the brainchild of Victor Jouet, a French priest who travelled to Belgium, France, Germany and Italy, scooping up relics to display in his gothic church on the banks of the Tiber.

Jouet died in the museum's only room in 1912, surrounded by his treasures, but the collection lives on despite a discussion in the late 1990s about whether to close it. "We realised that most visitors were not Christians but those interested in the paranormal, or in some cases the devil," Zambolin said.

"The Church didn't want to encourage something that wasn't to do with faith. But in the end the decision was made to keep it open. The collection does start discussions about Catholic ideas," he added. And although most of the fiery signals date back to the 19th century or earlier, Zambolin doesn't think the lack of modern-day signs has any significance.

"We don't get any new objects sent to us, but we don't need new signals to believe in purgatory today."

from "The Knight of the Immaculata Magazine (January - February 1990)" Not many of us may be interested in anything that might limit our well-being and comfortable life, much less would care to thinks of martyrdom. Yet martyrdom is an everyday fact in about half the world under communism. “The good will be martyred…” When Our Lady mad this prediction back in 1917 on a condition- “If Her requests were not heard” – there was some religious foretaste of what is to come. Our Lady’s requests, evidently, were not heard, for again according to Our Lady’s prediction-World War II came and in its wake Communist “liberation of the masses.” Following the war, Communist persecution continued unabated throughout the world-it rather increased to such an extent that Bishop Sheen could say: “The Church probably has had more martyrs in the Last 50 years of communist persecution than in the first three centuries of Roman persecutions.” We might add that it is quite probable that we have not yet seen the height of the modern persecution of the church. We don’t know what might be in store for us, but it is easy to surmise that whatever it is will have to be severe in order to smash our “stubborn” love of freedom. Back in 1946 Sister Lucia, the surviving seer of Fatima, made a clear statement to William Thomas Walsh to effect that every country without exception would be overcome by Communism; If Our Lady’s requests at Fatima continued to be ignored. Since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, over 130 Million people have died at the hands of Communism in Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Tibet, Cuba, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Africa, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland etc; in 72 years of the most brutal mass killing in history. And now Cuba’s Communist-trained agents are infiltrating the whole Latin America in order eventually to ‘free the poor from capitalistic oppression’ as Castro did in Cuba. In view of the alarming threat of world domination by the Reds, which any thinking, free man cannot afford to ignore, the all-important question is: Are we doing something really effective to stem the Red tide? – Are we sufficiently heeding Our Lady’s requests? Indeed, especially since John XXIII and the Vatican Council which he activated, a new spirit of hope has taken hold of many in the Church and outside the Church. Yet this hope can turn into frustration unless each one of us feels oblige to actually implement Pope John, remember, reiterated the Gospel call to penance through his encyclical on penance, Paenitentiam Agere, particularly in view of making the Vatican Council really effective and fruitful. Our Lady’s requests-our heavenly Mother’s modern reminder and plea to her Children perfectly coincide with Gospel message and the Church’s teaching. Now if we judge from the successes of Communism and from the advance of materialism and immorality it doesn’t seem we are as yet heeding Our Lady of Fatima’s requests. Atheism and “disaffiliation” from God is gaining greater acceptance. With less and less thought of God morals decline – a harbinger of national decay. Immodesty in dress even among Christian women is gaining acceptance. Motion picture and TV are continuing downgrade on their immoral way. Major crime, especially among young, is also on the increase. The sense of sin and moral guilt is being excused as an emotional disturbance. And popular sympathy is influencing justice, as in the case of the young Belgian mother who, after murdering her deformed child, was vindicated in a court of justice amid cheers of spectators. While justice and the natural law are being relegated to the trash heap in Europe in such a dramatic and publicized way, in America the highest court in the land is helping to make the mere mention of God in educational, social and political dealings as something improper and unpopular. In view of these facts would anyone be so optimistic as to say that Our Lady’s requests are being heard? And if they are not being heard then the frightening predictions of Fatima are still threatening – “the good will be martyred and various nations will be annihilated.” How prepared and ready are we for martyrdom? We may be forced to undergo a “wet,” bloody martyrdom or a bloodless, “dry” one of long-lasting, tortous oppression.* We will be ill-disposed to accept one or the other due to our soft and comfortable ways. If the simple and unequivocal requests of Our Lady of Fatima** are too much for us, how would our faith be able to withstand the isolation for years, as is common in countries behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains. Actually, all Our Lady is asking for is essentially the return to true Catholic living. Catholic living imposes crosses and privations upon us, but sometimes we make the mistake of letting this sadden us and we renege on our convictions. The reason for this is because we fail to evaluate things properly. Crosses and privations are Christ’s special invitation to us to share in his special friendship. He asks u to take up our cross and follow him. He wants us to believe him as he assures us that our crosses will be turned into crowns. Our Short-lived sorrows will be turned into everlasting joys. At Fatima our Mother pleads with us to listen to Her Son. But perhaps we can’t take that type of talk from our Mother; the harsh and even diabolical treatment of a Communist occupation may be what we really need. In any event, She is ever ready to help us whether we voluntarily do penance according to her Son’s Gospel wishes or we are forced to do penance “the hard way” and become martyrs through the actual Communist oppression. She is the Queen of Martyrs and the Cause of our Joy, and She has assured us “in the end He Immaculate Heart will triumph.”* Martyrdom – “wet” and “dry.” Bishop Sheen who uses these terms considers wet martyrdom a bloody, properly-so-called martyrdom; the dry martyrdom is one suffered by those oppressed, particularly in our day, under communism. In the latter victims suffer great mental tortures, degradations and other abuses – a lot often more trying than a bloody martyrdom.** Requests of Our Lady of Fatima: 1. Prayer: "Say the Rosary every day, to obtain peace for the world. Add after each decade the following prayer: "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy." 2. Sacrifice: Our Lord appeared to Lucy in 1943. He complained bitterly and sorrowfully that there are few souls fulfilling Our Lady’s request saying: “The sacrifice required of every person is fulfilment of his duties in life and the observance of My Laws! This is the penance I now seek and require!” 3. Consecration and reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary: "I promise to help at the hour of death with graces needed for salvation, whoever: on the 1st Saturday of 5 consecutive months, shall confess and receive Holy Communion; recite 5 decades of the Rosary; and keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to my Immaculate Heart." 4. Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Pope and all the Bishops of the World. Our Lady said: “God is going to punish the world by means of war, famine and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If people attend to my requests, Russia will be converted and the world will have peace. If not Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, fomenting wars and persecutions of the Church…”

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Come and join us for the Procession and Mass in honor of St. Gerard Majella on Tuesday (Oct. 16, 2012) at The Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Gogon, Legazpi City PH...Procession will start at the Shrine at around 4:00 PM followed by the E

St. Gerard Majella, religious, is the patron of expectant mothers. He was born at Muro, Italy, in 1726 and joined the Redemptorists at the age of 23, becoming a professed lay brother in 1752.

He served as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. However, because of his great piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was permitted to counsel communities of religious women.

This humble servant of God also had the faculties of levitation and bi-location associated with certain mystics. His charity, obedience, and selfless service as well as his ceaseless mortification for Christ, made him the perfect model of lay brothers.

When falsely accused by a pregnant woman of being the father of her child, he retreated to silence; she later recanted and cleared him, and thus began his association as patron of all aspects of pregnancy. Reputed to bilocate and read consciences. His last will consisted of the following small note on the door of his cell: “Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills.”

He was afflicted with tuberculosis and died in 1755 at the age of twenty-nine.This great saint is invoked as a patron of expectant mothers as a result of a miracle effected through his prayers for a woman in labor.

He died on the 16 October 1755 at Caposele, Italy of tuberculosis. He was beatified on 29 January 1893 by Pope Leo XIII and was canonized on 11 December 1904 by Pope Saint Pius X.